Fri December 14, 2012

Police Cordon Off Conn. Shooter's Mother's House

And we turn now to NPR's Robert Smith. He has been outside the home of Adam Lanza's mother on the outskirts of Newtown, Connecticut. And, Robert, has the home also been a crime scene today?

ROBERT SMITH, BYLINE: Yes. Police are treating this as a crime scene. And I should make this very clear: Police have cordoned off the entire street where this house is, and it's a very rural and affluent neighborhood outside of Newtown. And it's impossible to get within, I don't know, maybe even an eighth of a mile of this home. And there's a lot of police here. They're blocking off the whole area. They're treating it as a crime scene. We have heard that there is a body there, but we do not know who that is or any more information. And they're being very, very careful about letting neighbors in there, letting reporters anywhere close. They're even sort of patrolling the woods around here so that people can't get in the back area.

SIEGEL: You know, I recall after the Aurora, Colorado shootings, there were fears that the gunman's home might have been booby-trapped with explosives. I gather there were bomb squads that went through that street today and - or bomb-sniffing dogs.

SMITH: I did not see any of that. I know that that's sort of a standard thing to check for. I will say they're being extraordinarily careful about letting anyone close to this home. And I should say we know from public records that the home is owned by the mother. It was sold to the mother by - Nancy Lanza, it was sold to her by the father for a dollar, Peter Lanza. They divorced. He - for a while (unintelligible) misinformation. For a while, they were - there was a lot of reporting that the father of the alleged shooter, the father, Peter Lanza, had also been killed. But the newspaper in Stamford, Connecticut, says that no, he indeed - they contacted him. He lives there. He works for GE.

SIEGEL: The Stamford Advocate actually encountered him there today. Have you been able to speak to any neighbors at all about this incident?

SMITH: Yeah. I spoke to a number of people who said to me that they did not know the family. You have to picture this area. These homes are very large, and the plots of land they sit on are extremely large. One of them had a front lawn so big, they had sort of a mini peewee soccer field there with two goals. That's how big these lots are. And so there's no sidewalks, there's no way that people encounter each other here. That's what everyone told me.

I did talk to one neighbor who actually worked in the school, he's the head teacher for the morning program they have, for kids who are dropped off early. And though he did not know Nancy Lanza personally, he was telling me about the high-security situation at the school this morning, and he was incredibly distraught, thinking that some of the kids who are in his program that morning might not have made it to the afternoon.

SIEGEL: OK. Thank you, Robert. That's...

SMITH: Welcome.

SIEGEL: ...NPR's Robert Smith, who's outside the home of the mother of Adam Lanza, who was the gunman inside the school in Newtown, Connecticut, today. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.